Zhang Yimou

by Gateward, Frances K.

• ISBN13: 9781578062621
• ISBN10: 1578062624
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-07-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi

Summary

Ranging from 1988 to 1999, this book includes interviews with the acclaimed Chinese director of such films as Red Sorghum (1987), Shanghai Triad (1995), and Not One Less (1999) and the trilogy Ju Dou (1990), Raise the Red Lantern (1992), and The Story of Qiu Ju (1992).Several of these interviews appear in English for the first time. Some come from Chinese-language periodicals, and a few have never been published until now.In these conversations with such notable critics as Michel Ciment, Robert Sklar, and Tam Kwok-Kan, Zhang Yimou discusses all his films and speaks candidly about his work both as a cinematographer and an actor. Certain topics -- the symbolism in his use of color, the use of women protagonists in most of his films, his working relationships with the Taiwanese filmmakers Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang -- emerge many times in the interviews. He shows strong interests in literature and film adaptations of texts.Zhang speaks too of his work with the actress Gong Li and of her roles in six of his films, most of which depict the role of a woman living in feudal patriarchal society.Zhang was one of the 1982 Beijing Film Academy graduates -- the so-called Fifth Generation of filmmakers, who were the first generation of Chinese directors trained after the Cultural Revolution. He discusses the Academy's impact on him and his peers. He often mentions that many of his fellow graduates now work in television because the state did not deem their films successful. "If a film does not recoup its costs in China, " he told the New York Times in 2000, "you're not going to make another one. And you're not going to make a film without attracting investors."Using his art as ameans of exploring oppression and its devastation of human relationships, Zhang talks openly about the effects of mainland China's codes of censorship on his work. He often bemoans his lack of access to films, especially int

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Chronology	xiii
Filmography	xvii
Discussing Red Sorghum	3	(12)
Jiao Xiongping
Asking the Questions: Interview with Zhang Yimou	15	(10)
Michel Ciment
Zhang Yimou's Black Comedy: The Story of Qiu Ju	25	(5)
Law Wai-Ming
Becoming a Part of Life: An Interview with Zhang Yimou	30	(5)
Robert Sklar
Of Gender, State, Censorship, and Overseas Capital: An Interview with Chinese Director Zhang Yimou	35	(15)
Mayfair Mei-Hui Yang
Ten Years of Suppressed Energy: The Creative Path of Zhang Yimou	50	(7)
Chun Chun
Interview with Zhang Yimou	57	(6)
Hubert Niogret
Zhang Still at the Heart of Chinese Filmmaking	63	(4)
Rone Tempest
The Extravagance and Simplicity of Zhang Yimou's Eye	67	(4)
Chow Shuk-Yin
Zhang Yimou: Only Possible Work Environment Is China	71	(3)
Renee Schoof
Paving Chinese Film's Road to the World	74	(25)
Li Erwei
The Personal Is Political for a Chinese Director	99	(4)
David Sterritt
Cinema and Zhang Yimou	103	(16)
Kwok-Kan Tam
Discussing Keep Cool: The Camera Lens Presents the Irrationality of Chinese Society	119	(8)
Jiao Xiongping
Not One Less	127	(6)
Cynthia Wu
Zhang Yimou, Do You Have Any More Films	133	(14)
Mut Ya
Zhang Yimou: No Going Back	147	(4)
Yeung Wai-Lan
From the Fifth to the Sixth Generation: An Interview with Zhang Yimou	151	(16)
Tan Ye
Index	167